“We’ve enjoyed low interest rates for so long, we’re having to deal with a little bit higher rates now, so the market is trying to figure out what that could mean for inflation,” Darrell Cronk, the president of the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, told the Associated Press.

Fears about inflation were stoked by the stronger-than-anticipated jobs report for January.

Fears about inflation were stoked by the stronger-than-anticipated jobs report for January, which came out Friday morning.

The U.S. added 200,000 jobs last month — about 15,000 more than expected — and average hourly wages rose by nine cents. The unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent, unchanged from December.

The numbers were a good sign for workers. But they worried investors, who are concerned that the combination of higher wages, a tighter labor market and an uptick in inflation may push the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting in March.

Left:
Traders wait for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to rise above 25,000 on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on January 4, 2018. On Friday, the Dow experienced its worst drop in two years. Photo by REUTERS/Lucas Jackson